


Cut From the Same Cloth

by Sciencelings



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: BAMF Peter Parker, Big Brother Peter Parker, Captain America Sam Wilson, Everybody loves Peter Parker, Gen, Hurt Peter Parker, Identity Reveal, Little bit of graphic injuries, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Pain and Comedy, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Post-Spider-Man: Far From Home, Publicity, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, because Tony lives, but otherwise its pretty compliant, extreme fluff, throwaway monsters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-15
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2020-09-01 02:38:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20250796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sciencelings/pseuds/Sciencelings
Summary: aka5 times people close to Tony realized how similar Peter was to him and 1 time Tony realized it himself





	1. Happy- Selflessness

The day had started out normally, or at least as normal as living in a world of superheroes tended to be. Happy Hogan had just been waiting for Peter to get out of decathlon practice to help shield him from whatever people tended to harass him after the whole secret identity debacle. Everyone from shitty reporters to spidey fans waited for Peter to leave school and Happy usually had to threaten to sue before being able to get Peter into the car. 

Peter handled the attention better than Happy thought he would, he just had to get used to it. Happy knew that Tony had something to do with that, being in the spotlight his whole life made him the best candidate to help Peter with the sudden fame and infamy. Nothing had divided people more than Spider-Man. While news organizations claimed that he was a menace and a greedy monster, the people who actually knew Peter Parker were disgusted by the accusations. 

At least they had legally taken care of everything months ago, Peppers lawyers absolutely destroyed all ‘proof’ that Spider-Man was anything but a good guy. They had made sure to reveal everything about Quinton Beck so that he would never be able to rest easy. They had so much evidence against Beck that it was an open and shut case and the daily bugle had been sued for something like the slander against a minor. They let Peter keep the money and use it to pay for him and his friend’s college tuition. 

Just because Peter wasn’t criminalized didn’t mean that everything was back to normal. The Parkers had to move apartments multiple times and whenever Peter didn’t have school, he would stay with the Starks as it turned out living in the middle of nowhere with paparazzi prevention tech was good for not getting swarmed by people constantly. 

Thankfully there were only a few weeks until school was over for the summer and Peter could spend most of his time away from the city. He was restricted to very low-level crime once the state found out about his age and would be required to sign the accords once he was eighteen in a few months. 

Peter snuck out of a side entrance of the school with a few of his friends which had become practically the entire decathlon team, but there were only the main two this time. The Flash kid had been really weird after the spider-man reveal but Happy never got the details. 

Happy left the expensive car to greet Peter and ward off any unwanted attention when things went wrong. It felt too soon for something big but that’s what they got for five years of silence. Peter froze for a moment and looked behind Happy before the ground started to shake more violently than any earthquake that they had ever felt. 

In a moment, Peter stood protectively in front of his friends and Happy switched to protective bodyguard mode. 

“Get in the car. All of you!” Happy demanded, admittedly a little frantically. It could’ve just been an earthquake but he really doubted it. Besides they were in New York City, bad things seemed to like happening here. 

“Get them away from whatever the hell that was,” Peter had opened his backpack and was digging around. 

“No, you are not fighting that thing-” Happy ordered as the sky darkened, not from a cloud but by something much more sinister. 

“I’m not fighting anything… unless I need to fight something…” Peter shrugged as his web-shooters unfolded onto his wrists. 

“You’re still on probation-” 

“I have to get there before Captain Bald Eagle does! That and there are only like three superheroes in this city and a lot more people that are not as super.” Peter webbed his backpack to the side of the school. 

“If you do anything stupid Tony is going to kill both of us dumbass!” 

“Oh, dumbass knows!” Peter grinned and kissed his girlfriend before shooting webs out of both of his web-shooters and slingshotting himself to a better height to properly web-sling. 

“We’re following him.” Peter’s scary girlfriend MJ said without any room for debate. Happy wouldn’t have tried anyway, he was not going to let Peter just go straight towards some unknown foe that looked less like a cloud of ominous smoke and more like a glowing red creature from Stranger Things. 

Happy was not thrilled but he got in the car and drove the teenagers straight towards the creature. 

Meanwhile, Peter had stopped at his apartment and got the nanotech iron-spider suit before going to inspect the situation. He had decided that this monster was scary. It was the size of a large building but not the biggest building and it was a good dozen stories tall and it looked like it was a fusion between a fucked-up spider, scarlet glowing molten lava, and dark clouds that consume all the light around it. It looked like the overpowered villain in a fantasy video game and Peter was not prepared for the fight. 

“Hey, pipsqueak!” Peter turned to the annoyingly familiar voice to see the patriotic rebranded falcon. 

“Hey! Captain Falcon! Who let you out of the old people's home?” 

“The same person that let you out of your crib.” Peter shot a web on Sams' chest and swung himself easily onto his bird friends back. Sam retorted by spinning and flying upside-down, which didn’t do anything because he stuck in place pretty easily. It was one of his defining powers after all. 

Unfortunately, their playful reunion wasn’t meant to last, as apparently, the giant alien creature had eyes and it saw Spider-Man and Uncle Sam as a threat and tried to wack them out of the sky with one of its massive leg things. Sam swerved out of the way and Peter tried to be a good little backpack and not throw off new Caps flight pattern. 

A bright golden light hit the monster from the ground and a floating figure flew towards them and Peter grinned when he figured out who it was. 

“Hey, It’s Mr. Strange! Can you magic this guy away or something?” Strange gave him a less than amused look as if he was moments away from rolling his eyes. 

“In a crude sense, yes. This monster is from the interdimensional void. If you two can distract it and keep the citizens safe than I can find a way to expel it back from whence it came.”

“Piece of cake,” Sam remarked. 

“Is no one going to comment on the ‘from whence it came’ thing? When you become a wizard do you have to talk all Shakespearian and shit?”

“Shut up Peter.” 

“No, I’m actually wondering- oop!” Peter jumped off of Sam when the mildly annoyed monster swiped at them with one of its spindly legs. 

“We have shit to do Spider-boy!” 

“Whoever gets the most hurt loses!”

“You’re just setting yourself up for failure kid.” Sam dove away from the threat and shot at the monster to at least catch its attention. It kind of worked but the bullets obviously did nothing to the beast. It turned towards Sam which let Peter have the opportunity to start evacuating the people. 

Peter and Sam switched jobs every once in a while and were handling the situation as well as they could. Sure, the creature caused some fair collateral damage but they managed to stop it from destroying an occupied apartment building, so they counted it as a win.

This order in the chaos only lasted for a few minutes. It went downhill when the creature got more aggressive for seemingly no reason. Later he would realize that it was because Doctor Strange had started whatever spell to put the thing back in the interdimensional void. 

It roared so loudly that the ground shook, if it could be called a roar. It was more of an empty screech that no being on earth could make. It reminded Peter of a dinosaur but even that description was less intimidating. 

Suddenly the fight became frantic and strictly defensive. Peter could only focus on getting people out of the way and slightly unsuccessfully dodge razor-sharp lanky limbs swiping the air around him. Peter quickly gained a few injuries before he was able to gain his footing and be ready to dodge at any moment. 

“Spider-man,” The image of a digitally recreated Dr. Strange appeared in Peter's visor, “I found the relic that will send this creature back. I gave it to our new captain, the catch is that it has to go inside of the monster, being near it will no be enough.”

“Got it, we have to force-feed it or I can distract it while Sam injects it rectally?” Peter asked. 

“This thing only has one point where we can put the relic.” Peter could see Strange rolling his eyes out of the corner of his vision. 

“Its big ugly mouth? Cool, oh you’ve got to be kidding me-” Peter spotted a very familiar fancy car with a very familiar group of people in it. For some reason, the beast had also spotted it too and seemed particularly interested. Its dark, alien mouth opened to reveal fangs the size of large swords and it lunged out at the bright yellow car and Peter kicked off his perch on a lamppost. 

Peter barely managed to stop the mountainous maw from reaching his friends. He caught the two largest teeth and had one foot inside of the monster's mouth, forcing it to stay agape. Peter used his other foot to stick with all the might he could to the concrete beneath them. He heard several people scream and yell his name, which wasn’t as bad as when he still had a secret identity but was still pretty unprofessional. 

“I’m giving you a great opening Mr. America! I would appreciate if you used it!” Peter yelled as his muscles started to ache from the massive force being exerted onto him. It didn’t help that there were razor-sharp teeth only inches away from his head and arms. 

Sam swooped in and was almost whacked out of the sky with a tentacle leg thing but was able to toss Peter the little ball of magic while Strange seemed to be trying to immobilize the thing from the opposite end. Peter caught the little glowing red ball and didn’t hesitate to throw it as hard as he could into the thing's gullet. 

For a few terrifying seconds, nothing happened. Then Peter made the mistake of weakening his grip on the mouth of the creature. In a second, the maw snapped shut with a sickening crunch. Peter was mostly able to save himself from being chomped, but his arm didn’t get out in time and the pain made Peter’s vision go white for a nauseatingly long time. Before he was able to try to escape, the creature whipped it’s head around violently as it flung Peter away at a mind-numbing speed. 

Peter had been thrown into buildings sure, but he didn’t usually pass all the way through them. And it wasn’t usually more than one. Peter crashed through the thick brick walls of almost four buildings but he didn’t feel the last one. He was out by then. He didn’t hear the screech of the creature as it was consumed from the inside out and send back. He didn’t see Happy running at his limp blood-covered body and he didn’t see the terrified tears in his friend's eyes as they finally spotted him. He had only felt the split second of blood entering his mouth and his whole body exploding with pain before his vision went dark.

____________________________________________________________________________ 

Peter took his time waking up. His body felt weighted and like it was floating at the same time. Before his eyes opened, he heard hushed voices and felt someone holding his hand. He squeezed it as his brain started to recognize the dull pain pulsing through his body with every heartbeat. His arm felt frozen in place and he found it hard to breathe as deeply as he wanted to. The blood at the back of his throat was replaced with dryness and a chemically hospital taste. 

“Ow…” Peter managed to weakly croak out as he reacted to the rediscovered pain. His face wrinkled in a wince and he squeezed the hand a little harder. 

“Pain is always a fun wake up call huh kid,” Tony said as he smiled down in relief at his kid being at least conscious. 

“Yeah… shit. God, don’t they have any better painkillers here?” Peter assumed that they were at the new compound or the secret avenger's infirmary in the city. 

“Sorry Pete, you’ll have to blame your spider DNA for that. You’re pretty resistant to all the drugs made especially for super reckless super people.” 

“That sucks… How bad is it? It feels pretty bad…” Peter groaned and closed his eyes again as he was already tired from being awake for thirty seconds. 

“Punctured lung, shattered Humerus, fractured collarbone, heavy bruising, moderate blood loss, all that fun shit. They had to pin all the pieces of your upper arm bone together before they were able to cast it. You almost lost your arm, we would’ve been metal arm buddies.” 

“Sounds like a fun club to be in. Wait… can’t spiders regrow their legs? Does that mean that I can regrow my limbs?”

“I hope we never find out. We better not find out…” Tony squinted his eyes suspiciously at him but it didn’t last long. 

“Is everyone okay? Were there any casualties?” 

“A few injuries a few people were in critical condition, including you, but fortunately enough, no one died. Even though I’m kind of mad at you for doing the whole hero thing, you guys handled it pretty well. I’m proud of you kid.” 

“Cool… where’s May? Is she here?” 

“It’s like three in the morning and I took the night shift since she just got back after a long shift at her hospital and I had to make her sleep. She really wanted to be awake when you woke up but you should’ve seen her. She needed a good night's sleep, and so do you…” 

“-m not tired…” Peter said, tiredly. 

“Well, you heal better while asleep and I’m sure you’ll be more comfortable.” 

“You make a good point,” Peter muttered. He fell asleep with his relatively uninjured hand still holding onto his mentors not metal hand. Tony had to pry himself free when Helen Cho motioned to him. She seemed to be the only one not exhausted, he assumed that it was because she had recently flown in from Korea so jet lag still had a few hours to kick in. 

“His Spider DNA is immune to a lot of our anesthetics but I don’t think that’s the only issue. We have no medical history about his parents and I talked to his aunt who mentioned that Peter’s mom had a strange mutation that made her immune to some forms of morphine. This could’ve passed on to Peter but we know nothing about his parents. It’s like they never existed. Not even in government documents. I think figuring out his hereditary history as well as his Spider mutation will greatly help us in making something strong enough to give him relief from his pain.” Doctor Cho explained. 

“Maybe I can talk to May about them a bit… Having no records of them is pretty suspicious.” 

“Perhaps they were more important than we realized. Everyone has files, theirs have to be hidden for a reason.”

“Well, I always love a good mystery…” Tony looked through the little window to the hospital room to see his sleeping child, whose past seemed to be much more mysterious than he had anticipated. Tony could only hope that his suspicions were wrong, that Mary and Richard Parker were normal people who had been struck by tragedy but in this world, Tony couldn’t be so sure. 

Nothing was a coincidence in this world of homicidal aliens and gods. Maybe that was why Tony was so curious. 

____________________________________________________________________________

Happy couldn’t get the image out of his head. Of the kid lying on the ground covered in debris and blood. Of the kid being the only thing in between him and the gross shadowy monster. It was one of those moments that he saw Tony in the place of the kid. He saw the portal in the sky, he saw the image of his boss and best friend snapping his fingers to save the universe. Even though he wasn’t there personally, he was told about it in vivid detail. It was such a Tony thing to do. To put himself in between the people he cared about and the thing that could kill him. 

Now that person was Peter. And it really didn’t surprise Happy. He knew the kid pretty well and he had a martyr complex to compete with Tony’s. Peter was a little more obvious about his constant care for other people but Happy knew Tony enough that it was pretty obvious to him that the ignorant billionaire facade was just that, a facade. 

Tony cared so much about other people that it frustrated Happy at the times the world would claim that Tony was just a cocky asshole. Even the Avengers ignored Tony's kindness and it angered Happy to no end. Only a few people seemed to recognize Tony’s generosity and selflessness. Unlike the rest of them, Peter saw it from the very start. 

Pepper, Rhodey, and even Happy all had their doubts about his rich kid in charge of a weapons company, they all had to get to know Tony to realize who he was behind the mask. Somehow, Peter already knew. 

Happy had asked Peter about it on the plane after the Mysterio incident. Peter got a little smile when he said that no selfish person would fly in a wormhole with a nuke or go out of his way to fix his mistakes after building a complex suit of armor. He said that Tony constantly put himself in harm's way even though everyone discouraged him and no one thought he was a hero. He knew the public was wrong about Tony and it was something he would constantly stand behind. 

His words made Happy realize that while Tony was the only one that believed in Spider-Man, Peter could very well be the only one that truly believed in Tony Stark. Peter trusted Tony more than Happy could understand and for some reason that meant a lot. Tony had meant a lot of mistakes and Peter still trusted him. Happy wasn’t sure that he could say the same for himself. 

Tony wasn’t always a superhero but to Peter, he had always been a hero. Peter had the strange magical ability to see the good in anyone and maybe that was why he was tricked by Mysterio so easily. He wanted to believe that people were inherently good or just misunderstood. 

Tony was also kinder to his villains. He gave them anonymous counseling and kept an eye on them, knowing that their anger towards him was misplaced and was more than willing to give second chances. Look at scarlet witch, all she wanted to do was kill Tony and she made him create a near world-ending superbot, yet he still let her join the avengers when she was finally able to ignore her misplaced sense of revenge. He still did his best to help her even when she was ungrateful and ignorant of her situation. 

Tony and Peter knew that people could change. After all, they had. They had both been people that they wished they hadn’t been, done things they wished they hadn’t done, or not done things they wish they did. Whatever the case, they both believed in change and they both believed in the future. They believed in it so much, that they would sacrifice themselves for it. They would always be the ones willing to die for the hope that the world could keep spinning if they did so. 

Maybe that was why Happy was stressed so much. His best friend and the kid he drove everywhere were both the most self-sacrificial idiots on the planet and the most hopeful for the future. Happy knew that the kid would’ve changed the world even without a radioactive spider-bite. He was like a tiny, superpowered version of Tony Stark. 

Happy was pretty sure that was a good thing.


	2. Morgan- Affection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter has to spend time in the hospital after the events of chapter one. aka, I stuff as many name drops in as possible and Peter proves to be the best brother ever.

Peter got tired of being confined to a hospital bed after approximately six hours. Time went by torturously slowly and a week sounded an eternity away. Thankfully, Peter wasn’t alone in all this. He genuinely thought that everyone was being a little clingy. 

The first day Peter was fully conscious and stable, he got a lot of visitors. Michelle and Ned visited after school, Sam brought him some not hospital food in celebration of not getting sepsis or getting any strange alien illnesses. Peter was pretty damn glad that he wouldn’t have to worry about that. 

Peter really didn’t expect all the people who visited. He thought his friends, the Starks, and his aunt would be it. He was pretty surprised when everyone from Ant-Man to Captain Marvel, to the king of Wakanda and his sister, came to visit. No one told him that Tony had suggested that they come to cheer him up. No one was bothered by that at least. 

Carol brought her cat who was fully satisfied with just sitting on top of Peter’s chest for the entire duration of her visit. She told him about all the aliens she had met and about different planets and he was pretty sad when she left. She was fun. 

The Guardians briefly visited and Peter got to teach Groot how to play Mario Kart. The big buff alien guy made some comment about him being resilient for being so small and puny. Peter decided to take it as a compliment. They were all kinds of strange but ultimately fascinating to talk to. Aliens were pretty cool. 

Scott and Hope visited for a few hours with Scott's daughter Cassie who was only a little younger than Peter as she wasn’t snapped. She was pretty cool, they had a long weird conversation that spanned from Star Wars to possible cultures in space based on the aliens he had met, to her updating him on the memes he had missed. 

Needless to say, Scott had to pull his daughter away from the conversation after it reached the three and a half-hour mark. They exchanged phone numbers before she had to leave and he would text her when he was bored and she would send him pictures of her homework and let him help her out of boredom. 

Even people who Peter thought wouldn’t like him because they didn’t like Tony stopped by. Wanda brought him some soup and told him about how her mother would make it for her and her brother when they got sick or hurt. Clint came over and let him fiddle with a trick arrow, which was hard to do with only one hand but he managed to improve the voltage output of the taser arrow anyway. 

Sam gloated about the bet they made on the battlefield. Peter took a minute to remember what it was about. When he did remember, he groaned. Peter had said whoever got the most hurt lost. Peter lost by a long shot. Obviously. 

With all the visitors and nurses checking up on him, only one thing was constant. Tony. Everyone left eventually except for him. Mostly because May had a job, taking care of the damage after the Thanos incident. If she had a choice, Peter knew she would’ve been glued to his side. In any case, Tony never left him. 

Of course, this meant that a good amount of his time was also spent with Tony’s daughter, Morgan. When Tony first mentioned his daughter, Peter was a little bit surprised but when he thought about it, it made a lot of sense. Tony had been trying to resist his dad's energy and it finally overcame him. 

Morgan herself was similar to other small children as she was one, she sometimes talked about nonsense touched everything she could reach. She immediately climbed on the hospital bed and plopped down next to him, much to her parent's displeasure. They tried to stop her but Peter smiled and told them it was fine, as long as she didn’t try to pull on any tubes. 

She curled up on his good side and he rested his arm around her as she showed him something her dad had given her. It was just a little mechanical spider that she told him could do tricks and fly around. Peter almost rolled his eyes because a spider? Really? Couldn’t Mr. Stark make a robot puppy or something? Or get Morgan an actual pet? It made sense though, Tony would do something like that.

Peter let Morgan pick a movie to watch, which ended up being the Incredibles because of course it was, superhero movies were still popular even though real-life was practically a superhero movie. Morgan rambled about what superpower she wanted and Peter used her as a distraction from the constant pain. He smiled and playfully teased her to ignore his physically painful consequences of being a reckless dumbass with the big alien monster.

Pepper picked up a whole lot of pizza for the little family and they just hung out. There wasn’t much else that they could do with Peter being bedridden. The last time he tried to sit up, a nurse ran in and almost yelled at him for moving. Peter wasn’t planning on making any drastic movements. He was allowed to make slight adjustments to his position but putting too much weight on the right side of his body would result in a nice fun wave of new pain.

While Peter was paying attention to Morgan and not outwardly showing too much pain, Tony was on a mission. He was looking into Peter’s parents. The more he looked, the more mysterious the case was. There were no records anywhere. To the world, Richard and Mary Parker simply did not exist. No marriage certificates, no birth documents, no renting agreements, and no death certificates. Nothing. 

Tony hesitated to look in the place where secrets were hidden. There were no other places to look. It would make sense if he found something in the released SHIELD files that were leaked so long ago. Before Ultron, before he even met Peter. 

So he looked. He wasn’t sure that he was prepared for what he found. There was a file on them. A large one. Unfortunately, it was heavily redacted. There were thick black boxes covering most of the details and Tony knew that the only way to get the original files would be to go for a quick vacation to find the old director of SHIELD. If anyone had some secret files, related to them or otherwise, it would be whatever was left of SHIELD. Even after being destroyed and secretly revived, they still managed to keep things a secret. 

Tony just didn’t know what to think of Peter’s parents with their relation to the secret organization. If their documents were still a secret after the massive SHIELD leak, then they must be important. That didn’t normally mean that it was a good thing. 

“Hey kid, Do you know anything about your parents?” Tony asked once the movie had finished.

“Uh, not much, they died when I was super young. Why?” Peter responded as he started to find the next movie. 

“Doctor Cho doesn’t have much on you and we’re trying to build up a medical file. Just in case of course.” 

“I don’t know, they died in a plane crash when I was six and I don’t really remember them.” He shrugged. Tony raised an eyebrow. The files didn’t include anything about a plane crash. Either Peter was lied to, or the files were hiding much more than Tony anticipated. 

“That’s fine, we don’t want to be ill-prepared next time you get hurt like that. Family history can affect what your body may react too, I’ll just have the doctor run some tests so we can figure things out. I doubt we’ll be able to get you still enough to do it any other time.” 

“You’re taking advantage of my weakened state aren’t you? How despicable…” Peter joked as he prevented Morgan from wandering off of the bed. He didn’t think it was a good idea to let the kid run around the hospital. 

There was a quick knock on the door as Pepper walked in the room with a warm grin on her face. Tony realized she must’ve left while he was deep in research and didn’t even realize she had even left. 

“Good news guys, I’ve arranged for a friend to pay a visit.” Tony’s beautiful wife said with a bit of a sparkle in her eye. Or was that just how she always looked when he looked at her…

Peter raised an eyebrow. Who else would come an visit. He’d already had all of his one friend and girlfriend and practically every superhero he knew… who was left? His eyes widened to the size of the moon when the visitor entered. 

It was a girl with black hair and a purple shirt holding a golden lab puppy that seemed no older than a few months. The puppy was closing it’s left eye but seemed as happy as it could be. Peter couldn’t hold back the whimper of adoration that came out of his throat and the little exclamation of ‘ohmygod’ 

Pepper introduced the girl as Kate Bishop who was kind of like Hawkeyes mentee. Kate then introduced the puppy as Lucky and Peter had never fallen in love with anything as fast as he did when the puppy was placed on the bed and launched itself towards him. Peter had to pull the pup away from his face as he was drowning in dog kisses. Peter could barely contain the boyish giggles that came out of his face. 

“I thought that would help cheer you up.” Pepper winked as Kate sat on the far side of the bed to keep an eye on her puppy. Morgan seemed just as enamored with the dog as Peter was, if not more. Her little hands gently combed through the puppy’s fur as she made little cooing noises. Even Tony, who Peter was sure was a cat person after Carol brought her cat for a little visit, stood up to ruffle Lucky’s floppy ears. 

Peter and Kate started with some small talk which turned to a discussion about celebrities and a heavily censored game of Fuck/Mary/Kill. Peter was forced into admitting his lowkey attraction towards Thor and Scarlet Witch. He had to make Morgan promise not to tell ‘Uncle Thor’ or Wanda. He wasn’t sure if it would work, Morgan wasn’t exactly a Nick Fury type. She wasn’t the best at keeping secrets but Peter was relying on her to forget by the time Thor decided to visit. She tended to have a lot on her mind so forgetting was something she did pretty frequently. 

Eventually Kate had to leave with Lucky so Peter and Morgan had to have one last cuddle with the dog before Pepper escorted them out. By this time, it was dark and definitely past Morgans bedtime. She displayed a massive yawn before pulling on the blankets of Peter’s hospital bed to cover herself. Peter let her use his good arm as a pillow and scooted over so she had enough room. She only scooted closer to him and complained about the room being cold. Peter rolled his eyes in response. 

Peter automatically kissed her forehead. He didn’t know what got into him, it just felt right. May used to do it a lot with him when he was younger and it felt like a natural way of expressing his love for his little almost-sister. Morgan just looked up at him and made a comment he wasn’t expecting. 

“Daddy does that too.” She said simply. Peter looked up at Tony who just shrugged and muttered something about his kids making him clingy. Peter smirked in response. 

“Oh yeah? What else does he do?” 

“He does horrible bedtime stories!” Her enthusiasm made Peter snort a laugh. 

“I bet I can tell you a better bedtime story.” 

“If you indoctrinate my kid with nerd stuff, I’m never talking to you again.” Tony interjected.

“Story! I want a story!”

“So, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” Peter started as Tony groaned quietly. Peter only smiled in response as he continued telling the story of the first Star Wars movie in as simple language as he could manage. It only took five minutes of storytelling before Morgan was asleep, or Peter thought she was asleep. When he paused the story she muttered in the groggy drunk voice of a sleepy toddler. 

“You’re the best brother…” and just like that, she was snoring and back off to dreamland. Peter only looked up at Tony with wide eyes and caught him looking at them softly. 

“One baby down, one to go.” Tony whispered.

“Shut up.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this took a little longer than I thought it would and hopefully the next chapter will come sooner. Remember, comments are like currency for creators, so the more you comment, the faster the next chapter is likely to come out. win-win right? If you wanna check me out elsewhere I'm on Tumblr as @Science-lings, @sciencelings-writes, and @sciencelings-arts, twitter, and Instagram as @sciencelings. I would appreciate attention lol. see you guys soon!


	3. Rhodey- Intelligence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhodey's babysitting Morgan and making sure that Peter doesn't go out until he's medically able to. In this time, he makes some connections.

Good news, Peter was allowed to leave the hospital and do things he couldn’t do before like, stand and move. Bad news, he wasn’t allowed to go out as Spider-Man for at least a week. He also wasn’t allowed to participate in any Avengers things. Of course if one did come up, no one could stop him from inserting himself into the direct line of danger. 

For now though, he had to be just Peter Parker. Which was kind of boring but with the whole identity reveal thing, he could never be normal again. Everyone always knew. He could never just disappear into the crowd ever again. So one day, it was bound to become too much. Without superhero stuff to escape to, Peter didn’t have much of an outlet. 

Being Spider-Man always helped Peter be himself without… being himself. He always had a mask on and as long as he kept his composure, no one ever had to know what he was feeling. Even though now everyone knew his name and face, he still had the mask. He could still pretend no one could know if he was afraid. He wished he could have a mask constantly, he wanted a break from the eyes always looking at him. Even with a mask people would stare, but they wouldn’t see. Peter didn’t have to act with a mask on. 

With no outlet and no mask, no secret identity and much more attention than he was used to yet, something was bound to go wrong. Even worse, Tony and May were gone for the week for some research thing that had to do with him, but he couldn’t go because he was still a teenager in school. He stayed in the Starks secret New York apartment because May said that someone had to keep an eye on him and it was convenient for Pepper to make him babysit. 

It was fine, he could handle it. Sure he was a little restless and missed swinging through the city. Maybe he missed the thrill and the warm feeling in his chest that he got when he helped someone or made a little kid smile. 

It happened near the end of the day. Peter had a panic attack. The kind of panic attack that gave him tunnel vision and made him hide in the bathroom during lunch. The kind that made him feel cold inside with panic and forced his mouth shut. Ned waited outside the bathroom stall, even after the late bell rang. His best friend talked to him until the length of his silence became worrying. 

“Peter? Should I call someone? I know May and Tony are gone but my mom will kill me if I skip class.” Ned said quietly, careful of his enhanced senses even though his senses weren’t the problem this time. Peter appreciated the gesture. 

“Uh, Happy?” Peter handed his unlocked phone to his friend under the gap in the stall. “No… I think he said he was busy today… Mrs. Stark is literally a CEO… uh Rhodey? I think he’s around…” Peter shakily rambled. 

“Dude, you have War Machines number? That’s so cool.” Ned’s enthusiasm made Peter smile a little. He zoned out while his best friend was making the call though. His thoughts were just too loud and blurry. Even after so long, the ice coating his heart was still unmoving and he knew that he needed help. He couldn’t stay here. No matter what he did, he always felt eyes on him in such a crowded place. 

“-Peter? Peeeeeter.” Ned’s voice broke through the fog in his head. “Mr. Rhodes says he’s on his way and we just need to meet him outside. You ready to leave this shithole?” 

“Yeah… it doesn’t exactly smell that great in here…” Peter muttered. He realized how badly his hands were shaking when he opened the door and leaned a little on his best friend when he handed his phone back. 

Peter didn’t feel safe until he left the school. Even though the halls were empty, he could feel the gazes of students from the little windows by the doors. Thankfully since he was a registered superhero, his attendance policy wasn’t as strict as everyone else's. When his identity was revealed, he had to figure stuff like that out which he never would’ve spared a thought about otherwise. Come on, no other superhero has to think about makeup work for school if there was an alien invasion during their chemistry class. 

After a few minutes, Rhodey drove up in one of Tony’s fancy cars. The window slowly rolled down and Peter caught a glimpse of Morgan in her carseat in the back. A small smile grew on his lips. 

“Petey!” The little Stark loudly squealed, making Rhodey wince. Ned was already running to class and wasn’t looking to see Peter wave to him. 

“Hey princess! How was preschool!” Peter put up a front of enthusiasm. Morgan always knew when he was feeling down and had no qualms about pointing it out. 

“We got eminems!” Morgan slurred the name of the candy. Apparently she had a little trouble separating the words. 

“She got into a fight with the teacher about whether the brown m&ms were purple or not. We have come to a consensus that they are not purple.” Rhodey shrugged. 

“People think they’re purple?” 

“Their NOT!” Morgan argued. Peter put his hands up in surrender. 

“I agree with you Baby Stark. They aren’t very purple.”

“I’m notta baby!” 

“Of course you are, I can pick you up!” 

“You can pick up anyone! You picked up Hulk!”

“I guess that means the Hulk is a baby then…” This seemed to be a funny enough comment for Morgan to erupt into a Mount Vesuvius level of giggles. Even Rhodey was sporting a smile. With only the eyes of people he trusted on him, the emotional ice covering his chest started to melt. His muscles relaxed and his smile became more genuine. 

Peter must’ve zoned out because in no time, they were in front of the Starks apartment building. It wasn’t anything too fancy but it was definitely not something May could’ve ever afforded. 

“Petey! Spider- elevator! Spider-elevator!” The five-year-old demanded. 

“Nope! You are not walking up the building-” Rhodey ordered as Peter hoisted his little sister into his arms and shot a web at the top of the building. 

“Of course I’m not walking up the building! That would be boring.” Peter grinned as Morgan cheered shrilly in his ear. 

“Well, I’m taking the regular elevator like a regular person.” 

“Don’t put yourself down like that, you’re not regular at all, Mr. full bird colonel-war machine-best friend of Tony hecking Stark.” Peter laughed as he sling-shotted himself and Morgan into the air before gracefully landing on the patio of the Stark’s penthouse. 

“Jokes on you! I locked the outside door! You’ll have to wait for me to get up there!” Rhodey yelled from the ground. It was only a few dozen floors, this wasn’t trump tower, and Peter could hear smaller things from a whole lot further away. 

Thankfully Peter got them through a window so they didn’t have to wait ten minutes for Rhodey to use the normal elevator. Peter would’ve webbed him up but he always thought that the way Peter did things was freaky. Peter understood, not everyone can handle being tossed around on a tiny string. It was a little different than flying in an iron man suit. 

By the time Rhodey made it up the elevator, Peter and Morgan had already gotten into a lounging position on the couch, playing some new version of Super Mario bros, with Morgan being surprisingly good at it, although as Rhodey remembered, she was not as good at Mario Kart. And thus, never allowed anyone to play it in her presence. 

They played until Morgan was tired of the game, which was only about an hour, before she excitedly pulled Peter away to help her with her homework. She had to draw a picture of her family and she wanted his help to draw ‘daddy’s metal arm’. She didn’t just include herself and her parents, she included Peter and Rhodey and Happy and Harley and May and Nebula and she just kept on thinking of stick figures to add to her already crowded drawing. 

While they were working on the drawing, Rhodey brought them some take-out Chinese food and grilled Peter about doing his own homework instead of his little sisters. Thankfully he could balance both helping Morgan with the colors of Aunt Nebula’s face and his advanced calculus worksheets. 

The hours flew by, full of watching movies, doing homework and playing with the strange mix of dolls Morgan had which included about five versions of Iron Man and War Machine, one of which was a rescue barbie modeled after Mrs. Stark herself, and several Disney princesses. Peter noticed that Ariel seemed to have a batman themed costume on.

Eventually, Morgan had to be put to bed and Rhodey had some calls to attend to. Peter entered the dim room full of holographic projectors that Tony would use as his little workshop. Peter was pretty sure there was an iron suit or twelve hidden in it but that wasn’t what he cared about. It was late and therefore peak time for his brain to run wild with ideas that he couldn’t let escape him. 

He waved a hand to turn on the holograms and started to talk out his ideas to Friday, who seemed more than happy to work with him. 

He must’ve lost track of time because it didn’t feel like too long later when Rhodey came knocking at the door. 

Rhodey had just left a call from Tony, who was being surprisingly secretive towards him when he realized that Peter was still awake and it was getting late enough to be worrying. He kept forgetting that Peter wasn’t quite an adult and still very prone to bad decision making. 

Rhodes rapped his knuckles against the door of the workshop before opening the door. 

“It’s getting a little late kid-” His speech stopped when the sight he took in gave him deja vu. The holograms in the dim room lit up Peter’s face with a vivid blue and entirely too much information assembled around him. For a moment Rhodey didn’t see Peter standing there, but Tony. Curiously, they had the same look when they were entirely too deep in thought. The same folded arms and furrowed brow. Rhodey almost expected Tony’s voice to come out when the kid spoke. 

“Oh! Wait, Friday, What time is it?” Peter asked. 

“It is currently one forty-three AM.” The AI said calmly. 

“Uh, whoops. Okay, I’m almost done for the day, I just have a couple more things to get through.” The kid assured, leading to a raised eyebrow from Colonel Rhodes. That expression changed when he saw what the kid was working on. A bright image of the first arc reactor floated, partially deconstructed in the center of the room. 

This wasn’t nothing. Tony didn’t just give people that. It was like giving his heart to someone, figuratively and literally. Rhodey and Pepper were the only people to even glance and the schematics for it. Tony just gave it to Peter to dissect like it was a science project. This seemed especially significant as it was the first one. The one built in a cave with a box of scraps with its creator’s life on the line. 

“Okay kid, what are you working on. I’m sure your aunt will be happy that you aren’t sneaking out to play vigilante instead of… whatever this is.” Rhodey waved his hand lazily towards the holograms. 

“Hey, you know every avenger in the state would kill me if I left this building before being cleared by Doctor Cho for missions. And I couldn’t sneak out because you’re here and you would embarrass me in front of the criminals.”

“I would… probably scold you in front of the baddies and carry you like a baby all the way back here. But that’s it. If it was Tony, he’d go all out.” 

“Yeah, I’ve never seen Mr. Stark go halfway with anything. Anyway, He gave me the files for his arc reactor and told me to make something with it before he got back and I’ve only thought of like five. I also may have seen footage of version three being immune to the mind stone and I wanted to figure out why so that wasted a bit of time-” Peter rambled while Rhodey recognized that the kid also had access to vital footage, the particular one mentioned being hidden from even SHIELD. 

As Peter rambled, Rhodey began to see Tony instead of the kid again. The way his eyes lit up when he was talking about something at a ridiculous speed and waving his hands to pull up specific diagrams to show off. Rhodey just couldn’t shake it, this kid was so much like Tony that it was kind of scary, and he knew Tony better than almost anyone.

Eventually, Peter ran out of breath. And Rhodey was reminded that it was almost two AM. 

“Okay kid, This is really interesting, and I am amazed at what you’re doing, but it’s getting a little late and I will send in Morgan to wake you up at a decent time. But I know people like you and Tony can’t exactly just turn your minds off so I’m gonna give you the same advice I gave him. Just keep a notebook by your bed, don’t use your phone for one, and write down the ideas that come to mind if you think you’ll forget it and we can go over them in the morning. But actually try to get some sleep.” 

“Okay fine. But only because I don’t want Morgan to splash water on my face at seven in the morning.”

“Good choice, also if you sneak down here after I go to bed I will find out and you will regret it.” 

“I know, I know, I think that Friday has a tattle tail protocol or something. If I go to bed now, can you promise to help me with my Academic Decathlon practice tomorrow? I didn’t go to practice today, or I guess yesterday and MJ will probably track me down and force me to do flashcards.”

“Yeah sure, unless there’s another interdimensional monster that the not recently stabbed avengers would have to take care of. Things like that kind of interrupt people's schedules. Other than that very specific situation, I promise to help you with your flashcards or whatever.” 

“Cool, Friday? Let’s wrap this up.” Peter waved his finger in a circle and all of the blue holograms disappeared in smart little animations. The room lit up with dim light as to not irritate Peter’s eyes as he had spent so much time in the dark room. 

“You want pancakes tomorrow? I know how to make pancakes…” Rhodey said casually as they left the room.

“Hell yeah, who doesn’t like pancakes.” 

“I don’t know, you don’t like a lot of weird stuff. Like your whole mint thing.” 

“Spiders don’t like peppermint, I don’t know what to tell you dude. It’s not like I’m allergic to it, it just elicits an annoying reaction and lasts forever. I don’t want to try to chew some gum and a day later not be able to have orange juice.” He ranted quietly before yawning. 

“Yeah yeah, Whatever. Remember the notebook thing. I know you geniuses can’t stand losing ideas.”

“G’night Mr. Machine.” Peter smiled while Rhodey snorted in response. 

“Night Spider-kid.” 

***

Tony and May were in one of the last centers for SHIELD information in the world. Every individual file released so many years ago and ones that were too encrypted to be released were all here. Or at least, that’s what they were told. There was also an entire library full of undigitalized files. Most of which, Tony and May would have to look through. 

The files contained missions, notable people, names of agents, incidents that the agency had part in, and documents for people who didn’t have documents. Like Peter’s parents. People in this day and age had evidence of existing, even twenty years ago before the people they were looking for died. 

Tony looked through the computers and May decided to go through the paperwork. Hours later and they had gone one by one through all of the invisible people's files, just in case they were misorganized, and they didn’t find anything. 

However, when Tony searched the names ‘Mary Fitzpatrick’ and ‘Richard Parker’ through the whole database, he found something he really didn’t think that he would find. At the same time, May had been going through the agent files out of desperation for any information. 

“Uh Tony? I think I found something…” 

“Me too.”

“Mary and Richard…”

“Peter’s parents…”

“-were SHIELD agents.” 

***

“Petey! Petey WAKE UP! Uncle Wodey made PANCAKES!” Morgan jumped on his bed with all of her might. Peter automatically put one of his pillows over his face to block out the sudden light and sound. “Waaaaaaaaake uuuuuuup!” She stopped jumping and began to attempt to drag him out of the bed by his overhanging arm.

After a minute or two of struggling, Peter decided to comply. He hit his little sister with a gentle swing of the pillow with an emphasis on the gentle bit. With his super strength, he would easily be able to make a pillow a formidable weapon. 

“I’m awake, I’m awake!” Peter exclaimed as he yawned dramatically which he only exaggerated a little. 

“Yay! Hurry up!” She continued to grab at him to lead him out of his room. Of course, Peter let her. 

“Was Uncle Rhodey holding the food hostage until you woke me up?” Peter said groggily. His eyes were still adjusting to the bright light of all the open windows in the apartment. That was definitely a difference between Rhodey and Tony, only the prior would let there be so much light inside before ten o’clock. 

“What does hostage mean?” 

“It means he wasn’t letting you have any until his conditions are met.” 

“I don’t know what that is but he told me that I can’t have any until I woke you up.” 

“Yeah that’s it, you should tell him that’s neglect.” 

“Oh hell no, it’s only been five minutes.” Rhodey groaned as they entered the dining area. 

“Uncle Wodey said a bad word…” 

“You’ll have to tell your dad when he comes back.” Peter huffed a laugh. 

“OUR DAD! He’s YOUR dad TOO!” Morgan corrected, Peter wasn’t sure that she knew the truth or not but he didn’t dare correct her back. 

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. I was promised pancakes.”

“And you will get pancakes, but first,” Rhodey picked up a stack of index cards from off of the kitchen counter, “Flashcards.” 

“Isn’t it a little early to expect me to be smart?” Peter sighed. 

“You’re the one who said you wanted help with your Decathlon homework. You better be prepared to name every element in the periodic table.” 

“Just the elements? Okay that’s fine.” 

“Yeah I knew you’d say that. We can just blaze through them before breakfast and do the rest after.” 

“How long is Petey’s homework gonna take?” Morgan whined. 

It only took them half a minute. Peter didn’t miss a single answer and Rhodey wasn’t very surprised. He used to do the same thing for Tony when they were in college, as he was kind of obsessed with being able to list off the periodic table without thinking about it like a meticulously memorized theater monologue. 

The reward of pancakes seemed to be good enough for both of the hungry kids. It was nice to start the day out on a high note. Unfortunately, the tide was bound to turn.  
Rh

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so, uh, it's been a little while hasn't it. First of all, I want to apologize for that. I've been working on a lot of things and this wasn't exactly my top priority. However, this fic is very fun for me to write and I have much more in store. (but let's keep this on the down-low since I'm supposed to be working on my Big Bang fic) 
> 
> As always, Comments are encouraged even if they're just noises translated into keyboard smashes. Hopefully, some of y'all are still on board with this fic because I promise the mystery aspect is going to get even more in-depth. Feel free to check out my Tumblr @science-lings, my writing Tumblr @Sciencelings-writes, and my art Tumblr where I take commissions @scienclings-arts. I'm hoping to do a lot more writing as I obviously have things to finish. Of course, it is much more likely to happen if you guys comment. 
> 
> seriously I need attention. 
> 
> please
> 
> anyway, I love you guys and thank you for reading my fic and the post fic rambles. BYE

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you guys enjoy! As usual for attention-hungry creators, the more comments I get, the faster I'm more likely to get out the next chapter so if you enjoyed and want more, TELL ME! (please) 
> 
> If you want to see more of my stuff, my Tumblr(s) are @Science-lings @Sciencelings-arts and @Sciencelings-writes. Feel free to check me out!


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